· Föderation EN Mi 04.10.2023 02:14:22
It's a really good question!
If one person on your server has followed the account, all the posts after that moment should be visible from your server. However, anything before that may not be.
The solution to this would be "backfilling", where your server automatically checks for older posts when someone follows an account (or perhaps just interacts with it?).
Backfilling can be very resource intensive, which is apparently why it hasn't been implemented yet, but...
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Föderation EN Mi 04.10.2023 02:16:48
...according to the official Mastodon roadmap (at https://joinmastodon.org/roadmap) one of the features being planned is "Explicit controls to fetch more data from origin server".
Presumably this would be a button you could press on a profile to fill in more of the older posts, without you having to leave your server or go to the other server's website.
By the way, backfilling already happens with pinned posts, which is why it's a good idea to pin an intro post on your profile.
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Föderation EN Mi 04.10.2023 02:42:29
@feditips Ah, thank you! I look forward to having a backfilling option. As a photographer who uses Mastodon to find other photographers, the limited backview has been (mildly) disappointing. But the browser is an okay workaround.
It makes sense that backfilling could, sadly, be a resource hog on a server.
Re: "If one person on your server has followed the account, all the posts after that moment should be visible from your server. However, anything before that may not be."
This doesn't seem to be in effect here yet. If I look at, say, @kylev, for example, any media he has posted older than 24 days only shows as a blurred gradient in the app. But I and others on my server have followed Kyle for a long time. It seems boosting keeps media alive on my server, but simple following does not.
Again, thank you for the quick answer!
Bob
Föderation EN Mi 04.10.2023 02:49:50
"any media he has posted older than 24 days only shows as a blurred gradient in the app."
Ahhh... okay... possibly a different issue them? It sounds like the post is there, but the media file is not displayed.
That might be more to do with your server's media storage provider not displaying it properly, or perhaps your server has some resource-saving settings that affect this.
AFAIK there's nothing in Mastodon to stop a post's photo being visible.
Föderation EN Mi 04.10.2023 02:51:08
For what it's worth, on my tiny one person server I can see all old photos and never see blurry ones, but I don't have to worry about providing resources to cope with lots of other members.
Föderation EN Mi 04.10.2023 02:56:03
Föderation EN Mi 04.10.2023 03:39:05
I'm sure they will welcome donations to help 😉
